The Silver Fern

@nostrildamus said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

Despite not being the best boxer in his family he still had a magnificent career.

If he has a serious fight who knows ?

If he has a ‘don’t knock out Jake Paul or you won’t get paid’ fight then he’s no chance

hard to imagine it going super well , when Fury and AJ beat him , people defending him said but Klitschko was well past his best

that was 10 years ago.

If it helps, they might now be well past their best as well. And both brothers have PhDs in sports science so he might have managed to keep himself in reasonable condition.

I see it differently, they were too young and hungry for him 10 years ago and now they aren’t the top of the pecking order anymore because they have aged as well , just shows how long ago his best was

Maybe a fury Klitschko rematch would generate some interest and make them a lot of money but I’d be keeping him away from the next generation of younger big hitting hungry heavyweights.

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

Despite not being the best boxer in his family he still had a magnificent career.

If he has a serious fight who knows ?

If he has a ‘don’t knock out Jake Paul or you won’t get paid’ fight then he’s no chance

hard to imagine it going super well , when Fury and AJ beat him , people defending him said but Klitschko was well past his best

that was 10 years ago.

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

Goodbye and good riddance. If only he was genuine about it.

Why the hate ? Boxers have to sell fights with personality they can’t just be bland tennis players. Any reason for this attitude ?

I was a fan but he annoys me now. Constantly pretending that he's retired fir attention, plays the mental health card all the time yet that doesn't stop him from making the same boring lame insults all the time, he's a drug cheat (served a not so silent ban between 2016-2018), wasted time by holding the division up by taking rubbish fights against the likes of Chisora, Ngannou (which he arguably lost to), Schwarz etc. After beating Wilder in 2020, all he and his team did was hold the division up. We didn't need to see a 3rd encounter between them which took forever to make, and he is part of the reason as to why the division was held hostage for so long (AJ too). The only reason why he got in with Usyk was because there was nowhere to go and even that got dragged out to 2024.

How AJ v Wilder and Fury v AJ was never made in their primes is criminal and all should be held accountable. The division could have been good but they all refused to fight each other in their primes, and yeah, as I said, I liked Fury but am sick of him now.

Bring on the next crop of heavys.

Some fair points addressed there.

I like him so I guess I can forgive some of the silliness.

As I said in my post I’m taking this latest ‘retirement’ with a massive pinch of salt

He has retired in the past when it seems he wants to be left alone for a while , perhaps he doesn’t want be in negotiations with aj just yet and will do it later on his terms , that has been the fury way .

Or the difference this time might just be , losing to usyk twice has taken something out of him psychologically and he can’t be fucked anymore.

@kidcalder said in Boxing Thread:

Moses doesn't yet deserve a title shot yet...he beat Dempsey McKean - plenty fighters ahead him in the queue
There is talk of Moses v Huni which would be fun fight- Huni has skills but not a great chin 50/50 fight

Yeah I agree there are others who deserve it more but if he was to knock out a huni as well , the discussion to be the youngest ever champ will probably get louder , and if Turki wanted it you just never know . He seems to get what he wants .

His obsession with wanting canelo v Crawford as an example, that fight doesn’t make alot of sense to me given the size difference but I think it will happen.

@African-Monkey

I’m over the Fury v AJ debate , the fight that never happened and their fans hijacking every heavyweight boxing thread arguing over who is better . Both finished now. Usyk pretty much finished both their careers .

Do you think Frank will risk putting Moses in with the winner of Dubois v Parker while the opportunity to be the youngest ever champ is still alive ?

Dont forget the win against Klitchko , I rate that as his greatest win in alot of ways ,given Vlads unbeaten run and the massive underdog Fury was at the time,

it was a masterclass in tactics , got inside head first , the man that always looked so calm looked rattled for once

Then made him look lost in the ring , couldnt let his hands go ,

@nonpartizan said in All Blacks 2025:

@Jet said in All Blacks 2025:

@nonpartizan said in All Blacks 2025:

Why did Piutau end up leaving NZ? I seem to recall he was an absolute stud.

Was it just a case of the ABs being stacked with back 3 talent or did he fall out with the coaching staff?

Was basically the highest paid player in the world for a good 5 year period. Ulster, Bristol and Wasps paid him top dollar.

And he also left prematurely, which wasnt the norm.

He had loads of good rugby left in him.

Thats why I was comparing Toeava to him.

Charles eked out a great career, albeit not on these shores.

Toeava was a gun but his body failed him. Could have been an all time great.

Could do it all (and maybe that was part of the problem).

His ommision from the 2015 RWC was contentious wasnt it? Because I think he did not leave for the NH until after the tournament.

Obviously Ben Smith & Savea were nailed down starters but I think Naholo was coming off an injury and NMS was like an up and comer but a bit of an unknown quantity.

I could be wrong on the above but I just remember thinking it was crazy that such a talent could not get into the squad.

I remember talk from the coaches , something about his skillset , they thought he played left better than right ,

Jules was the incumbent there and was automatic , and they picked NMS and Naholo to have a shoot out it to play right ,thats how i remember their reasoning ,

But yeah a great talent and one that got away , I remember the omission of Dagg at the time to be a bigger shock to most though

@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:

@DaGrubster said in All Blacks 2025:

@Bones said in All Blacks 2025:

@DaGrubster said in All Blacks 2025:

@SBW1 said in All Blacks 2025:

Mark Pickering  /  Jan 8

Aaron Smith sees Joseph Manu as a future All Black

World Cup-winning scrum-half Aaron Smith believes that his new Toyota Verblitz teammate Joseph Manu is an All Black in the making.Legendary All Black Smith, 36, who is in his second season in Japan with Steve Hansen and Ian Foster’s Toyota, was joined in Aichi in the summer by rugby league convert...

Maybe if he converted a few years ago.

Still only 28, no reason why he couldn't get another half a decade in if he's a hard worker.

Oh, I agree that he could have 5 plus years in Union.

But he is 28 now and won’t make a super rugby debut until he is 30 at the earliest so I think there would be a reluctance from AB selectors to pick someone like that

If he's a proper athlete ala SBW and better than the rest I don't see why not.

I think a lot depends on whoever is coach at the time and whether they have the belief in the players potential.

Wayne Smith appeared to be a big believer in athletic freaks and getting that to transition into game time ,sbw and toeava were a couple in particular he would openly discuss as projects when first selected.

Not sure you could get a card better than this , every fight is worthy of a main fight in its own right .

Yeah went the way I expected it , David is a good prospect who could possibly win a title himself one day , but the timing of this was all wrong for him.

The experience won’t hurt him .

Jai is the real deal though , should unify the division even if the division lacks top end talent compared to a few years ago , thats not his problem, Zurdo should be a good fight

@sparky said in All Blacks 2025:

@SBW1 said in All Blacks 2025:

Colin Newboult  /  Jan 3  /  New Zealand

Leicester Fainga'anuku reveals 'preference' for Top 14 over Super Rugby as All Blacks powerhouse opens up on New Zealand return

Leicester Fainga'anuku admits that he will miss Toulon and the Top 14 after stating that he 'prefers' it to rugby back in New Zealand.

I'm with Leicester here.

Leaving aside parochial preferences, I prefer watching Top 14 to Super Snore. The games tend to be contests for longer, the crowds are much noisier and more partisan and the quality and type of Rugby is closer to Test rugby. Arguably there is a bit more variation and creativity in the way the Top 14 sides play too.

There's a big job to fix super rugby to make it more interesting again and a better preparation for playing Test Rugby. The Blues pointed the way last year. I hope other franchises were taking notes.

For me , it’s got to the point where I only seem to find the nz derbies interesting.

And I used to watch a lot , particularly in the super 12 years .

@Cyclops said in Boxing Thread:

Between Uysk and the Klitschkos, Ukraine has had an incredible run of success in boxing.

And Loma , if you watch him and usyk , they are very similar in technique ,both southpaws , and the footwork and movement is almost identical, they were close friends growing up with lomachenkos father training the two of them through their very early years taking them both through to gold medals at the olympics

@MiketheSnow said in Boxing Thread:

Neither Dubois nor Parker will go the distance with Usyk

Different league

If Parker beat Dubois and actually gets his hands on a belt again , that in itself is his Everest,

Getting a unification fight with usyk would be massive for him , the payday would be enormous , usyk would be too much for him though

The funny thing is , the way he is fighting now , he is probably more similar to usyk than anyone else , the Temu version maybe , but maybe he has enough movement and speed to give Dubois some problems too.

@African-Monkey said in Boxing Thread:

I had it wider, 117-111 Usyk, 116-112 was the best I could do for Fury.

Will watch again when I get a chance but yeah, time the boxing world realizes that we're witnessing an ATG in Oleksandr Usyk.

Olympic gold medalist and dominating 2 weight divisions,

Ill put my hand up and admit I knew he was a great cruiserweight but I did not expect him to dominate at heavyweight the way he has as well I thought he would go ok , but not clean it out .

He is an all time great , that is not even debatable

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Great fight , both men warriors

Not as close as I thought.

Usyk is so awkward, relentless……

But Fury is a fucken warrior too, incredible stuff.

I wonder if there’s room for a third fight ?

Yeah he just doesn’t stop moving and working , gives you very little time to set yourself , very difficult to outpoint but I actually though fury may have got more than 4 rounds though,

The guy that beats him if it happens probably has to stop him , the judges love his workrate ,

I suspect the winner of Dubois v parker fights him now ,

Joe has a massive opportunity if he’s good enough

Great fight , both men warriors

@MN5 said in Boxing Thread:

@kiwiinmelb said in Boxing Thread:

Keep an eye out for 19 year old heavyweight, Moses Itauma.

Could be the future of the division

Most understated post ever.

Huge early knockout. McKean is no chump either, 22-1 record.

Will definitely watch this young fellas progress!

Yeah looks a super young talent , beautiful mover with power

Keep an eye out for 19 year old heavyweight, Moses Itauma.

Could be the future of the division

I’m finding it difficult to imagine if it goes the distance anything but a usyk victory,

But with fury he appears very motivated and if we go through his history his best performances have been when his back is to the wall , coming in so heavy intrigues me what his plan is,, I suspect he is going to fight roughhouse ,lean all over him ,throw caution to the wind and attempt to stop usyk , but it could backfire badly if he can’t catch him , gets sloppy and walks into usyk s left hand . A stoppage either way is possible for me .

But if it goes the distance, usyk .

Coming in 20 pounds heavier than fight 1 ,and heavier than he has ever been , It’s fairly obvious fury is going to attempt to dominate usyk physically use his size advantage and attempt a beat down , and he may have his moments of success , if there is a chink in usyk s armour , there is plenty of footage of him looking uncomfortable being hit to the body over the years . It has to be part of the plan you would suspect.

The issue will be, if usyk is still standing in the middle rounds , it’s from there he usually picks up the pace of the fight and goes into overdrive, and fury being so heavy might be knackered by then .